Lore, The Dragon's Tome Options

[Zalphon]

Gods

The Council of Gods

The Council of the Gods. They govern the realms.

Bane - God of War and Destruction; Chaotic Evil. Commonly called, "The Warlord of the Gods" or "The General of the Abyss." His skin is black as midnight and his eyes as red as blood. He wears a suit of black platemail with runes of war and chaos skittered onto it.

Lord Kalian - God of Magick; True Neutral. Commonly called, "The Mage-King" or "The Lord of the Arcane." His skin is blue, the natural color of magick. He wears dark blue robes and keeps the hood up. The deity is rarely seen in his natural form.

Mistress Samantha Star - God of Love; Lawful Good. Commonly called, "The Scarlet Princess" or "The Sweet Lady." A very pale-skinned god, much like a high elf. Her hair is silvery and she wears a red robe.

Sir Talarin - God of Bards and Stories; Chaotic Good. The God of Bards is extremely strange. No one knows his true form, because he changes quite a lot.

The Wanderer - God of Roads; True Neutral. He looks like a normal human wearing commoner's clothes. His hair is red and he has a goatee.

Arch Duke Drakos - God of Dragons; Lawful Good. Commonly called, "The Scaled One." Scales cover this god's entire body. He has rope-like scales that are similar to hair. He wears a suit of silvery god-plate platemail.

Lord Fenix - God of Manipulation; Lawful Evil. He is rarely seen in his true form. When he is, it's a black robe, and a body similar to Drakos'.

Lord Thomas Flamewhisper - God of Fire; True Neutral. Commonly called, "The Flame-King" or "The Fiery Dominator." The Flame-King is pure, living fire. Bound only by the red robes tailored with elemental flame.

Lord Samuel Stonethrower - God of Earth; True Neutral. Commonly called, "The Earth-Lord." The Earth-Lord's skin is gray as the stone he commands. His armor is only a suit of chainmail made of steel.

Lord Victor Aeroheart - God of Air; True Neutral. Commonly called, "The Airy Watcher." Lord Aeros wears mummy-wrappings to contain his body. He is pure air and wears a robe to cover the wrappings.

Lady Evangeline Frostblood - God of Water; True Neutral. Commonly called, "The Ice-Queen." The Icy Queen has blue skin and wears black platemail. Her armor has icicles hanging off of it.

Sir Mythaniel - God of Retribution and Valor; Lawful Neutral. Commonly called, "The Avenger." The Avenger wears a suit of shining platemail and uses a longsword and kite-shield. No one has ever seen him not in his armor.

Guillerman Kas - God of Destruction; Chaotic Evil. Guillerman has red skin and demonic horns sprouting from his skull. He wears a pair of black pants, black boots, and a cuirass made from the bone of his fallen enemies.

Thule Kas - God of Fear; Chaotic Evil. The God of Fear has no true form. He appears to be whatever inspires the most fear in those who surround him.

Mordo Kas - God of War; Chaotic Evil. Mordo is the most sadistic of the Kas brothers. He is always in the form of an orc with black skin and a suit of chainmail.

Lord Vayris - God of the Undead, Shadows, and Betrayal; Lawful Evil. Lord Vayris' flesh is rotting, his hair is white. His armor is black robes with the hood up. He wields a staff created by the flesh and spirit of Angels and Demi-Gods.

Tribunal

The Creators of Mathoc.

God-King Elementius - God of the Elements; True Neutral (Older-Sibling of Twilight). He looks like a normal human. However, he wears robe of all four elements.

God-King Chronos - God of Time; True Neutral (Consort of Twilight). The God of Time looks like a darkal. He has gray skin and white hair. His robe is made of the very essence of time and is white.

God-Queen Twilight - Goddess of Night ad Day; True Neutral. (Consort of Chronos). The Queen of Night and Day looks like a High Elf in the Day and a Dark Elf in the Night. In the day, her hair is silver and her skin is pale. In the night, her skin is gray and her hair is black.

Demon Lords

Overlord Banespirit

High Council Leader Vayris

Councilor Blacksoul

Councilor Shadowspirit

Councilor Bloodsoul

Councilor Ebonspirit

Councilor Voidbringer

Races

Darkal (Dark Elves. The dark-skinned, light-haired elves of the Shadowdark. Originally Hyekal, but after King Alu'Kar Everlight declared the Noble family, House Slyth outlaws, they had to hide for hundreds of years. Over time they evolved to match their surroundings.)
Hyekal (High Elves. The original breed of elves, that consider themselves to be above the rest. When the gods first experimented with races, elves were one of the first.)
Shakal (Shadow Elves, hybrids of Darkal and Hyekal. A rare and almost hated breed. They tend to either live with one of their parents. If they live with their Darkal parents, they tend to be seen as equals. If they live with their Hyekal parents, they're seen as servants or abominations.)
Halkal (Half-Elves. A mixture of elves and humans, they tend to look like humans, but with pointed ears and finer features.)
Monkal (Moon Elves. The Moon Elves are the second rarest of all elves. Rarely found anywhere in civilization, they're natural-born spell-casters. Rumor is they were born of a high-elven wizard who extracted the power of one of the three moons and was transformed.)
Wodkal (Wood Elves. The forest-dwelling elves are quite common in Dragonwood and Ranger and Druidic Organizations. They grew to their homes after their ancestors moved to the magickal forest of Dragonwood. The primal magick mutated them into the oak-skinned denizens they are now.)
Seakal (Sea Elves. After a mad-sorcerer tried to become a water-dweller the Lady Evangeline gave him his wish. The Seakal have gills and look like an amphibious humanoid.)
Drakal (Dragon Elves. They're the offspring of a dragon and an elf. They're by far the rarest. They look like an elf with claws and wings. They inherit the best of both races, the dragon's cunning intellect and amazing strength and the elf's charm and beauty.)

Orc (a war-like race that tends to live in tribes or empires. Some however have moved into civilized cultures as stonesmiths.)
Gnoll (dogmen, usually of neutral alignment if druids or evil if not)
Human
Spellblood Human (humans evolved via the use of magick)
Dragon (the most ancient race. They've defended the realms since the beginning of time.)

This post has been edited by Zalphon: May 10 2010, 12:51 AM

[Verlox]

I always admire world building. However, Zalphon, I'm not seeing anything here that is really original or eye-catching. It seems like the start to your average gazeteer for Forgotten Realms/World of Greyhawk/Generic DnD Setting. You even use the DnD alignment system. If you're gonna go to that point, why not tell us what their Cleric domains are, or their favored weapon. I feel, when reading this, that it is made primarily for a PnP game of DnD.

Not that that's a bad thing, one of my worlds I've done a very similar thing. That's what my World of Rhume is for, to play Pathfinder on.

Is there any information you can give us the dieties? Maybe their avatar's appearance, their relationship with other gods, what their realm is like? How did the gods come to be? Were they created by an even higher being (Dievas/YHWH/Supreme Being of some sort), have they just always existed, or did they arise from formless Chaos like the primordial gods of Greek Mythology?

The Tribunal...God-Kings...That stretches my disbelief a bit because I know another world that has another set of God-Kings, also called the Tribunal.

Also, sometimes the names of the gods are a bit jarring. Bane I'm willing to ignore cause everyone uses that name, and he's always the exact same god in every mythos I've seen. But other names, like the elemental lords, or Sir Rhodes, they are just so uninspired.

Ok, races. I feel like there are too many elves. But what's the difference between them? Is it a cultural thing (High Elves live in beautiful cities and discuss philosophy, while wood elves live in trees and discuss nature), or is it based on appearance? Or both like Elder Scrolls?

Orcs. . I don't have a prejudice towards orcs, per se, but that just reinforces the feelings that this is a PnP world made for playing in. Also a warlike race, something straight out of my Monster Manual. And before anyone says that ES has orcs too, remember that it took until Morrowind for them to break the mold of being standard enemy number 1, and even now they are still pretty generic.

Now, that isn't to say you shouldn't include a war-like, scourge-like race that ravages the planet. Look at Dragon Age and the Dark Spawn. We ALL know those are orcs and goblins, there is no disputing that, but the lore-dudes put such a twist on it, that it makes them very fun and inspired; no longer being standard enemy number 1, but the twisted, sick, antagonists of Dragon Age.

Humans. Every good world needs humans.

Gnolls. Hmm...not something I see a lot of everyday, but still right outta the Monster Manual.

Ok, factions. White Shadows feel like Assassins Creed crossed with Dark Brotherhood.

Fighter's Guild, Mage's Guild, Thief's Guild, many settings have them, so it's excusable. Throw some twists in there to make them a little more appealing.

The Gray Council actually caught my eye for a minute. At first glace, to me, they seemed a lot like the mages of the World of Darkness, working behind the scene to make sure everything is ok for Joe Schmoe. But then I saw that they had connections with the divine and I groaned a little on the inside. This is more a personal taste, though, so others might feel different. In polytheistic settings, I really like to see conflict between the mortals and the divine, which fits with nature that we are beings afflicted with Pride. There was one thing that managed to cement my hate of Mystra in the Forgotten Realms, and that was how she could, theoretically, shut magic off to certain people. That has always upset me, in all settings, that contain a god/gods of magic. Magic should be something that can equal the playing field between mortal and immortal. That is something really attracts to me the World of Darkness. For all intents and purposes, mages are still mortal there, surrounded by vampires, werewolves, immortals, Franknenstein's Monster, Cosmic Horrors, ect ect, and they basically pimp-slap reality, telling it to get outta the way while they launch fireballs from their fingertips and boil blood with their mind. Gods don't need magic, they're gods, mortals do.

Anyway, Gray Council. On one hand they seem like a cool, behind the scenes guys, while on the other they look like the gods' errand boys.

I feel that what you have here is something to build up on; to twink and twist until it's something less DnD (unless that is what you're shooting for). Here are a list of things to think on, and I'll also give you an example from one of my worlds. I'm shameless, i know (NOTE: I do not present this as a definitive list, and I realize that all people have different views of what makes good fantasy.)

1. Religion: A pantheon of gods that embody certain aspects of mortal society is very status-quo. Why not shake things up a bit?

In my Cilgratis stuff, the Supreme Being is an active (named Ion in Rhonddan) force in my stories. But I also use a collection of spirits and quasi-dieties created by Ion to essentially administer to the Universe. Most of these spirits do not like Ion that much, and take their hate and anger out on mortals.

2. Technology and Society: I haven't got around to fully reading Dragon Tome yet, so I'm not really sure what Earth-Similar time period it's in, but from what I see it's either the sixth century, or the 15th century. Anyway, what is their society like, or their tech? Is the land a monarchy, republic, ect ect?

In my Cilgratis stuff, the main people I focus on are tent dwellers, don't know how to make metal armor, and their iron weapons are pieces of crap. However, their leather apparel and armor would be considered artwork on Earth, and weapons of bronze are of surpassing quality. For society, the people are divided into three llwyth (tribes), who can intermix or remain pure to form daliadau which are both clans and towns. These are ruled over by a deiliad that is basically a chief. This changes later on when a certain character kills another character and such such.

3. Groups and Factions: What you have now is alright, but what about more mundane factions? Is their a guild of masons, wainwrights, bakers? Historically, these kinds of groups did exist, and could wield a good deal of power depending on the situation. Always something to look into.

In my World of Rhume, the River Kyth Society, despite claims to the contrary, controls all the trade going up and down the River Kyth. They are able to do this because they've allied with Bay area craftguilds to form a coalition of sorts. Gives some interesting plots for my players.



This post has been edited by Verlox: May 8 2010, 09:37 AM